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Gartner Security 2014: No Farewell to Firewalls

Jul 14, 2014Josh Mayfield

Every so often someone suggests that network firewalls are no longer a strategic asset – typically based on the emergence of some shiny new, “gotta have it” technology, or the notion that this 20+ year old first line of defense – introduced by Marcus Ranum at DEC in 1992 – doesn’t matter as much as it used to.

However, if you listen to the experts – in this case leading industry analyst firm Gartner and their 14,000-plus clients – such claims are clearly misguided.

At the firm’s recent Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit 2014 nearly every relevant session reinforced that firewalls, and more effective management of these inherently complex devices, remains just as critical, if not more so, than ever.

From the summit’s opening keynote – stressing the need for CSOs and other security officials to tie their efforts directly to business initiatives (and bridge IT silos with offerings like FireMon’s recently launched Policy Optimizer) – to breakouts dedicated specifically to corralling firewall policies, the importance of stout firewall defenses was repeatedly emphasized.

Sure, there was the point-counterpoint “Farewell to Firewalls” presentation in which Gartner’s forward-looking thought leader Dr. Joseph Feiman focused on the need for new applications-centric mechanisms, specifically embedded runtime application self-protection [RASP] capabilities.

But, as artfully submitted by Gartner network security guru Greg Young, and ultimately conceded by Feiman himself, the continued development of such emerging technologies, in addition to adoption of cloud services and SDN, will actually require continued, if not greater, reliance on firewalls.

For further evidence, one needed to look no further than network security analyst Adam Hils’ overview of inquiry calls made by Gartner clients during the first half of 2014.

His hard numbers: a whopping 51 percent of the over 1,500 calls related directly to firewalls were divided between “my rule base is a mess, how can I clean-up and better manage?” and “next gen firewalls – should I migrate and how?”

The second place topic – related IPS issues – only accounted for 22 percent of all calls.

So, there’s hard evidence that any notion that firewalls are either yesterday’s news or increasingly less strategic are… highly overstated; the Gartner numbers simply don’t lie.

We update Gartner analysts regularly on customer wins, real world ROI data and FireMon’s technology roadmap – and listen closely to the “pain points” they hear from clients. These analysts understand precisely how valuable FireMon solutions can be in advancing organizations’ network security posture.

So why take our word for it? Give them a call and find out for yourself.

Events

Webinars

Traditional security models are all about the current state – but in the current state of cyber-security, by the time new rules are written, they’re obsolete. Resources have changed, topologies have shifted, traffic has evolved, and applications grew new arms and legs.

Most organizations that I talk to still have their networks designed for 90's era attacks. A hard perimeter and little to nothing on the inside. The one common exception is the part of the network that processes credit card data since PCI DSS specifically identifies the Cardholder Data Network (CDN) and requires controls around it.

Join David Monahan, managing research director at leading IT analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), and discover the difference between organizations using an SPOA solution to manage their firewall environments versus those not using one of these solutions.

Using Security Policy And Automation (SPOA) Tools To Reduce The Attack Surface

Attack surfaces have expanded greatly in the past several years, in part because of the amount of new applications coming online via Internet of Things and increasingly connected technology. Organizations have an admittedly tough time keeping up with all the new touchpoints and the rapid expansion of the attack surface. Complete defense is nearly impossible, and many companies struggle with visibility issues, mismatched or misaligned firewall policies, and an inability to comprehensively test the security configurations they do have

Cloud technology gives enterprises faster application deployment, instant storage, workload versatility and pricing models that decrease initial capital investment. It is no wonder enterprises are making the move to the cloud.

Migrations run the risk of cost overrun, delays and disruption of network service - often due to a lack of personnel and process to efficiently and effectively manage. To ensure a successful migration, consider these four key factors: 1) identifying and removing technical mistakes, 2) removing unused access, 3) refining and organizing what remains and 4) continuous, real-time monitoring.

Network Security Policy Management (NSPM) continues to be a difficult practice for organizations the world over. In the last 20 years, network security policies (e.g. firewall rules) have grown by more than 3,500%. Yes, you read that number correctly. Why is that?

Gartner research has uncovered a number of security policy challenges for enterprises. Among these challenges are the typical assessments necessary to fortify policy for compliance and improved security posture.

Welcome to the world of overflowing regulations and compliance standards, of evolving infrastructure and the ever-present breach. It's a world where 72% of security and compliance personnel say their jobs are more difficult today than just two years ago.

Firewall technology has come a long way since its initial, most rudimentary forms. Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW) are the latest development, and organizations are accelerating adoption to the new technology. But NGFWs aren’t a fix-all solution.

Forrester’s Zero Trust Model of information security helps teams develop robust prevention, detection and incident response capabilities to protect their company's vital digital business ecosystem. This report will help security pros understand the technologies best suited to empowering and extending their Zero Trust initiatives and will detail how Forrester sees this model and framework growing and evolving.

The customer sought a data analysis tool to correlate application data with network and security data to spot service-impacting anomalies. They did not have an accurate picture of interoperability between applications and the underlying infrastructure.

This national insurance provider had three problems to tackle regarding their firewall policies. First, the number of rules under management was overwhelming staff and processes. They needed to increase visibility and effectiveness of their firewall change request/workflow ticketing process. And they also need help maintaining compliance PCI DSS requirements.

Each time this Global MSP engaged a new customer, they had to onboard the firewalls – sometimes hundreds per engagement – into their network. Part of the onboarding process required assessing the policies against internal best practices – a manual, line-by-line process that took an average of 16 hours/firewall and was extremely error-prone.